274 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



There is another fpecies of the dionœa which 

 catches thofe infects with it's flower. When a fly 

 attempts to extract it's nectareous juices, the co- 

 rolla, which is ttibulous, fhuts at the collar, feizes 

 the infect by the probofcis, and thus puts it to 

 death. This plant is cultivated in the Royal Gar- 

 den. It is obfervable, that it's cup-formed flower 

 is white, radiated with red, and that thefe two co- 

 lours univerfally attract flies, from their natural 

 avidity of milk and of blood. 



There are aquatic plants, armed with thorns, 

 proper for catching fifties. You may fee in the 

 Royal Garden, an American plant, called martinia, 

 the flower of which has a very agreeable odour, 

 and which, from the form of it's rounded leaves, 

 the fleeknefs of their tails and of their ftems, has 

 all the aquatic characters which have been indi- 

 cated. It has this farther character peculiar to it- 

 felf, that it tranfpires fo copioufly as to appear to 

 the touch in a (rate of continual humidity. I can 

 have no doubt, therefore, that this plant grows in 

 America on the brink of the water. But the fheli 

 which envelops it's feeds pofieftes a very extraor- 

 dinary nautical character. It refembles a fifh half 

 dried, white and black, with a long fin upon the 

 back. The tail of this fifh is drawn out into great 

 length, and terminates in a very fharp point, bent 

 into the form of a fiîh-hook. This tail ufually 



feparates 



